Cosmology (2025) 26'

COSMOLOGY

Cosmology (from Ancient Greek κόσμος (cosmos) ‘the universe, the world’and λογία (logia) ‘study of’) is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos.

The overall architecture of the piece is one of a circular journey departing from Earth, travelling through distant reaches of the universe, and returning to Earth.

I – VOYAGERS

This is a prelude that gathers pace towards a lift off. An accumulation of energy. Your journey starts here.

II – ORION NEBULA

Is a dusty “star nursery” full of young and unformed stars and other bodies. It is very distant. If you could take an airplane there it would take 1,680,000,000 years to arrive.

III – THE PLEIADES

This constellation, named after seven sisters of Greek mythology, and much beloved of sailors for their usefulness in navigation is a very fast moving and hot closely grouped set of stars.

IV – EARTHRISE

During the flight of Apollo 8 in 1968, the astronaut William Anders took the now famous photograph of the blue marble of the earth rising above the barren horizon of the moon.

The need to explore is a very human thing, but to me this image encapsulates the deep truth that, however far we may travel, we are actually already home.

The Eliot lines from “Little Gidding” express it so perfectly:

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

Waking up to this possibility is one of the challenges of being a human being, beset as we are with problems of our own making, and sometimes we need a reminder, kindly provided by Bach in the chorale “Wachet auf ruft uns die Stimme” (Wake up! a voice is calling to us) that I quote here.